End of the Beginning
by FallenAngel2013
Summary: Isaac told her to leave, to get to safety, but leaving is easier said than done and Ellie remains in the shuttle above Tau Volantis longer than necessary, clinging to the hope that Isaac would respond to her pleas over the radio. When silence continues, she makes to enter Shockspace when a voice calls to her over the radio. All is not lost, and the fight isn't over.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **_**This is what I think should have happened at the end of **_**Dead Space 3**_** when Isaac calls Ellie's name over the comm. Also, I know that at the end of the part after the credits where Isaac calls Ellie's name that you can hear his breathing apparatus at the end of it, but I couldn't figure out how to make that work so I've fiddled with things a bit.**_

_**Right now, this is going to be a short story of maybe five chapters at the most, but if you like what you read and would like to see this story prolonged, either as a happier future for the two or my version of what I think Dead Space 4 would be like somewhere down the line or both, please let me know. If I get enough requests I'd be happy to comply and make a "novel" out of this. **_

**Summary: **_**Isaac told her to leave, to get to safety, but leaving is easier said than done and Ellie remains in the shuttle above Tau Volantis longer than necessary, clinging to the hope that Isaac would respond to her pleas over the radio. When silence continues, she makes to enter Shockspace when a voice calls to her over the radio. All is not lost, and the fight isn't over.**_

**Disclaimer: **_**I do not own **_**Dead Space**_**. I'm just playing in the sandbox.**_

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Coward.

That was Ellie's final word to Isaac's face before walking out of the apartment they'd shared only six months earlier before leaving that break-up message on the answering machine. Isaac was many things, but he certainly wasn't a coward. She'd just been so furious with him at the time that it fell from her lips as she stormed out the door.

It had been about three years since the events of the Titan Sprawl, and in that time they'd entered into a very intense romantic relationship. Both of them had enough in common to get along, and were different enough to keep each other on their toes. They'd been on the run from EarthGov for months but eventually decided that they needed to settle down somewhere and catch their breath, which brought them to a shit hole of a little colonial city named New Horizons on Luna, Earth's moon. There were other colonies on Luna that were far better, but they were too risky for the two to migrate to. They'd never really talked about sticking with each other after the Sprawl, but they never talked about going their separate ways either, and thus they remained by each others side. The apartment they'd been able to afford was small and dank, and in need of several repairs that kept Isaac busy for at least a month.

One day, about a month after moving into the apartment, Isaac surprised Ellie by having made an appointment for her to get a prosthetic eye, something he could afford after he found a job. The color was a little off, but she didn't care and had been ecstatic to have her eye back. After that, for her at least, things felt a little better. They might have been living on the run and in one of the filthiest colonies around, but for a while she and Isaac were happy.

Loving Isaac was easy and came as naturally to her as breathing did.

Loving each other wasn't their problem.

Eventually, a Unitology Church was set up in the colony and whispers began spreading about something big going on with those religious nuts. By the sound of it, it involved the Markers and "final convergence". EarthGov entered into a war with Unitologists and rumors began spreading that the government was quickly losing to the point where whole colonies began going dark. All was going to hell, and so few seemed to have any idea about how to stop it.

After seeing the horror of the Sprawl and seeing so many people die, Ellie didn't want anything similar to happen again and insisted that they try to stop the Markers. Isaac had the images and words in his head that made him an expert on Markers and knew how to both build and destroy them. Her boyfriend, however, was furious at the notion of coming out of hiding and going after Markers. Whenever the Markers were brought up, they entered into a very heated argument that always ended with both yelling and doors slamming.

Ellie loved Isaac, but he was the most frustrating man she'd ever met.

When she had nightmares, she talked to Isaac about them, and he offered her comfort and whatever else she needed at the moment. As difficult as their life was in the colony, he worked his ass off to make sure she was happy. She tried to ensure he was happy as well, but he constantly kept her at arm's length when it came to his own troubles. When he had nightmares, he shut her out completely and wouldn't acknowledge the horrific dreams he suffered or the occasional hallucinations. As far as he was concerned, they shouldn't go digging up the past. It was as though he wanted to pretend everything was fine when nothing was, and sometimes Ellie paid the price. On more than one occasion, he'd attacked her in his sleep when she tried waking him, resulting in her having bruises and scratches. She never blamed him for the wounds, but knowing that he'd hurt her made him hate himself in more ways than one and it spawned many arguments until Ellie eventually snapped and called him a coward for not wanting to stop the Markers and for not wanting to face his issues head on.

She couldn't just stand by and watch the end come – she had to do something, feeling it was her responsibility to do something since she'd survived a Necromorph outbreak. If Isaac didn't want to help her, she didn't need him, and for a long time she believed that, was even convinced that she was better off without him after meeting Captain Robert Norton.

After getting snatched by EarthGov shortly after leaving Isaac, Norton came to her and asked for her help in stopping the Unitologists, Necromorph outbreaks, and to help destroy the Markers. She'd been hesitant to trust him, but in the end she had no choice but to trust him if it meant that she could try to stop what was happening to the human race. They grew close the longer they were around each other until Norton eventually asked her out on a date only a month after she left Isaac. It went well, and a relationship was pursued, but it lacked the spark her relationship with Isaac had, and she constantly compared the two men. The more she thought about it, the more she believed that she was trying to convince herself that she didn't need Isaac to be happy when that just wasn't true, which was probably why she started a relationship with Norton so shortly after breaking up with Isaac. Norton's whispers in her ear that Isaac was selfish to put his own desires above hers only succeeded in her further fooling herself that she'd been right in leaving Isaac.

Robert Norton – that man had taken her trust and stabbed her in the back with it.

Not only had Norton gone back on his word to follow her lead, but he'd been an utter ass to both her and Isaac when the two were once again reunited, and had even gone so far to try to abandon the mission and get home by turning on Isaac and contacting Danik, establishing a sort of truce with the Unitologist – if Norton handed over Isaac, he, Ellie, and the others would be allowed to go home. It had all gone wrong and Isaac was forced to shoot him in self-defense.

And what had Ellie done in response? She lashed out at Isaac, blaming him for the mess that they were in. Isaac didn't say much in return and simply allowed her to vent her sorrow and anger. She eventually apologized, but the guilt she felt towards the words she spoke to him was still there, even as she sat in the shuttle, staring at the dashboard in front of her.

Isaac told her to leave him behind, to not come back for him because when he destroyed the moon he too was going to be killed. It broke her heart leaving him, but she did, grasping the torn half of the photo and the taste of him still on her lips.

Now she sat crying in the shuttle, praying to every deity she could think of that Isaac would contact her and tell her to come get him, that everything was okay, and that it was all over. Hell, she fleetingly hoped that she'd wake up in their apartment to him shaking her awake, assuring her that it was nothing but a bad dream.

There wasn't so much as a peep over the comm. The only sounds in the cockpit were that of the engine humming and her sniffling and quiet sobs.

Unable to take the silence much longer and desperate to hear his voice, Ellie pressed the comm button, opening a channel. Eyes locked on Isaac's photo on the console, she asked quietly into the comm, "Isaac?"

Silence.

Hiccuping on a sob, she tried again, "Isaac, are you there?"

Silence.

"Carver? Isaac?" she pleaded, needing to hear that someone was alive, that she wasn't alone. When silence followed yet again, fresh tears fell down her dirty cheeks, and she whispered painfully, "You're gone, aren't you?"

So much time had been wasted – she wasted it with not having the patience to wait for Isaac to come around, and Isaac wasted it being afraid to face the Marker threat head on. Both wasted so much time that could have been spent together, and now there was no making up for it as the signals of Isaac, Carver, and the Marker were gone.

The Marker!

Staring at a separate console with wide eyes, she gaped. "The Marker signal… it's gone too!" she exclaimed quietly to herself, the channel still open. "Isaac… you did it. You really did it!"

She smiled brightly, but it dimmed almost as soon as it appeared.

The Marker signal was gone, but Isaac was dead.

Biting her lip, she stared at the console, reluctantly accepting that there would be no response from her lost love, and tried to face the facts. He wanted her to leave and not come back. As much as it hurt, she would respect his wishes.

Exhaling sadly, Ellie punched in the coordinates back to Earth Space, paused, and then confirmed the destination with a heavy heart.

"Earth Space coordinates confirmed," the computer chirped. "Shockdrive enabled; standing by."

A numbness fell over Ellie as she grasped the controls reluctantly, struggling to steer the ship in the proper direction and engage the Shockdrive. She didn't want to leave, not without seeing for certain that he was dead, but there was nothing she could do. If he wasn't replying to her calls over the comm, he must be dead. She just prayed that he'd fully grasped how much she loved him when he died.

Sighing, she willed herself to move her stiff arms and headed the ship in the set coordinates.

The shuttle shuttered around her as the Shockdrive heated up, preparing to take her home, and she engaged the engine, ready to be away from the retched place once in for all.

"Ellie?"

The woman damn near jumped out of her seat and stared at the comm console with wide, unblinking eyes, her heart pounding in her chest as though she'd seen a ghost.

"Ellie? Are you out there?"

Ellie hastily disengaged the Shockdrive, the engine straining to comply with her command and jerking violently in protest.

Swiveling in her seat, she pressed the comm button and exclaimed, "Isaac! Isaac, I'm here! Where are you?"

"Ellie, can you hear me? I –" he paused, coughing roughly. "I heard your transmission but I'm getting nothing but static. Are you there?"

"I'm here!" Ellie shouted into the comm, fiddling with the buttons and dials, attempting to adjust the signal. He was alive, but now the damn comms weren't working right! "Isaac! Baby, I'm here!"

There was some more coughing, some of the coughs quite violent, before Isaac continued hoarsely, "The thrusters on my suit were intact enough to get me out of range of the Moon falling apart, but force of the thing getting destroyed banged me up pretty good. Helmet's gone though, and… fuck, I'm freezing!" He took a few deep breaths, and he took a moment to pull himself together. "I don't know if you can hear me, Ellie, but if you can, I want you to leave me. I got back down to the planet, but it won't be long before the entire area I'm in is destroyed by the Moon crashing into the planet – I don't know, forty minutes tops, if that. It's too dangerous for you to try to find me. Get –" he coughed. "Get back to Earth Space, start over… just… just make a life for yourself."

"Like hell I'm leaving you!" she hissed, giving up on trying to reach him and instead tried to locate his RIG's signal. If she could find that signal, she could find him.

"I… I'm sorry, Ellie. I'm so sorry," Isaac apologized brokenly, the tremble in his voice becoming more prominent as his body was affected by the below freezing temperatures. "I really wanted a life with you, a family. Hell, I just wanted _you_. I pushed you away, ruined what we had because of my own fucked up issues." He broke off to cough, and she could hear his teeth chattering over the comm. "You were right about everything. You saw what needed to be done and wanted to stop all of this. I'm so sorry, Ellie. I should've… should've gone after you the moment you walked out the door. I'm sorry that I can't be with you now. I… I love you, Ellie. Don't ever forget that. Take care."

"No!" she snapped, slamming her finger into the comm button. "Damn it, you bastard, just hold on, I'm coming for you!"

There was no reply and she didn't expect one.

Knowing that Isaac was in serious danger if he was out in the freezing cold without a helmet and injured kicked her ass into gear and she worked like mad to find his signal. If that comm of his was working even a little bit, she should be able to at least get a faint signal from his RIG if she was lucky and lock on to his coordinates.

"Come on, damn you!" she snarled at the console, hitting it with a closed fist in her frustration. Of all the times for technology to have a hiccup, it had to be now?

Taking a deep breath to prevent herself from doing any real damage to the shuttle, she stared at the console for a long moment before pressing a variety of buttons with a little more patience. Eventually, her patience paid off and data came streaming in as the shuttle's systems attempted to locate Isaac's signal. But just as it neared his exact location, it malfunctioned on Isaac's end and the signal ceased.

"Damn it!" Ellie shouted angrily.

She studied the scant amount of data she received and was able to get a rough idea of the area Isaac was in, but not his exact coordinates, meaning she'd have to pick a spot within the area she'd narrowed down and search for him on foot. She'd have to be very careful with piloting the shuttle, however. If she landed too close to the impact zone, the shuttle would probably be destroyed and she'd be killed, but if she landed too far away she was at risk of not finding Isaac in the short window he'd given her before he froze to death or was killed by the destruction of the Moon. So much was against her finding him alive, but she had to try.

Biting her lip, she took a shot in the dark and picked a spot to land within the circle that formed the large area where Isaac was located, close enough to the coming destruction to have her concerned but far enough away to reassure her that the shuttle wouldn't be destroyed within minutes of landing. Navigating the shuttle was much easier than that piece of shit they'd flown when they crashed on the planet, but it was still a bumpy ride and made her quite nervous.

Only when the shuttle was landed safely in the snow did she breathe before rising to her feet to find a suit. Luckily, there were a few in the back but they were all made for men. She grumbled under her breath and grabbed the smallest one she could find, frowning when it was quite obviously too big for her. But too big or not, it would keep her warm outside while the yellow tank top and cargo pants she currently wore wouldn't cut it. For Isaac, she'd grit her teeth and bare it.

Walking back over to the controls once she had the suit on, grabbing a spare helmet for Isaac, Ellie synched her personal RIG– the one pressed against the skin of her back via implants to hold it in place – with the RIG on the suit before synching both up with the shuttle.

The RIG truly was mans' greatest creation as far as she was concerned.

Making sure that her RIG was properly synched with the shuttle, she picked up a sub-machine gun. While the Marker signal was gone, she couldn't be sure that the Necromorphs on the planet were dead and she wasn't taking any chances. She would rather have a line-gun or plasma-cutter, but any weapon would do.

Once Elli was ready, she opened the comm channel on her holographic wrist device that was connected to her RIG, and pleaded, "Isaac, if you can hear me, find some place warm to hide and leave me a sign – I'll find you, I promise!"

Taking a deep breath, burying her fear down deep, Ellie abandoned the safety of the shuttle to search for Isaac, the destruction being brought down upon the planet by the Moon on the horizon.

Forty minutes or less, that was what Isaac had suggested, and that was about ten minutes ago.

With time running out, she took off into the blizzard, calling out to Isaac over the wind and rumbling and crashing. She would find him, she had to.

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_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **_**One location that I will be describing in this chapter is the wreckage and camp that soldier Tim Caufman came across in the Prologue of the game. Just thought I'd mention that ahead of time just in case there was any confusion. **_

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The air was thick with snow from the strong blizzard, and the strong winds made walking difficult when Ellie felt as though she was constantly being pushed to the left. If that wasn't bad enough, dust, ice, and small rocks were being carried on the wind from the destruction of the Moon and ruins. The dust and ice wasn't much of a problem, but the small rocks were becoming a concern. She wasn't afraid that the suit would be punctured, but she was aware that the growing size of the rocks was a sign that she was running out of time.

It had only been a few minutes since she began her search on foot, but even with her hurried pace she felt as though she wouldn't find Isaac in time. And if she ventured too far from the shuttle, it wouldn't matter if she found him or not.

"Isaac?" Ellie called over the wind and into the comm, receiving no answer. "Isaac, can you hear me?"

Frustrated with his lack of response, she activated the holographic projector on her wrist to get better grasp of where she was at. Simply running around and hoping she'd find him in the blizzard wasn't cutting it and was a waste of time. She needed somewhere concrete to search.

Having synched her RIG back in the conference room of the S.C.A.F facility earlier, she had a rough layout of the whole area in her RIG's memory banks. It had been an afterthought to put the whole map into the RIG and not just the maps of the facilities and warehouses, but after Norton kept rambling on and on about the whole place behind dangerous, she'd decided to download the largest maps she could find just in case.

Moving behind a boulder to shield herself from the wind, snow, and rocks for a moment, she locked onto her location and studied the area around her for any clue as to where Isaac may be. It looked like she was close to a cliff-face where the wreckage of an old spacecraft was located. The wreckage registered as a two-hundred year old S.C.A.F ship, and near it was a S.C.A.F outpost. It was a good distance from the main research facilities they'd explored upon arriving and was thus a fair distance away from the destruction of the crashing Necromorph Moon. Seeing as it was within the area Isaac was located, she was willing to bet that he'd either taken refuge in the wrecked ship or in the camp.

"If he hasn't decided to just freeze to death," Ellie mumbled to herself, a chill going up her spine that had nothing to do with the cold.

Isaac had sounded positive that he was going to die alone on the planet while Ellie headed to the safety of Earth Space. The notion that he could just decide to sit out in the cold and freeze in the subzero temperatures so that he would die sooner rather than later was a grim possibility. The thought was enough to make her nauseous, but she held onto the hope that he would not do that.

When the piece of shit ship they'd all been on crashed onto Tau Volantis, she'd been wearing nothing but a pair of brown jeans and a red short-sleeved shirt with a low V-neck. While the others had been cold, both she and Santos had been absolutely freezing, and she'd huddled into Norton's side to absorb some of his warmth. Being that cold was downright painful, and she certainly wouldn't want to stay outside with no protection even if she was going to die. With that in mind, she was hoping that Isaac had opted not to just freeze outside and instead went to find somewhere a little warmer to take shelter.

As she looked over how to get to the camp from where she was, she heard snow crunching off to her left. Because the sound could be heard over the roar of the wind and Moon crashing, rocking the land, she became keenly aware that whoever – whatever – had made the sound was incredibly close.

Ellie switched off the hologram, dropped the spare helmet to the ground, and spun towards the sound with her gun raised. Nothing was there, but the blizzard made it impossible to see too far ahead and she knew she'd heard something.

Swallowing, she called nervously into the blizzard, "Isaac?"

When there was no reply, her finger moved to the trigger of her weapon. Isaac would have known not to sneak up on her and would have answered her.

Experience told her that something was there, just out of sight, and that it wasn't friendly.

She couldn't waste time waiting for whatever was there to just jump out at her, so she slowly bent down to pick up the helmet and hook it to her belt before venturing out from behind the boulder.

Unable to see more than five feet in front of her and the knowledge that a Necromorph was quite possibly tailing her made her heart race and adrenaline flood through her veins. Even when visibility was good, fighting Necromorphs was dangerous. To go up against one in these conditions…

"Come on, Ellie, get a grip," she grumbled to herself, working hard to keep her fear at bay. Fear could keep you alive, but it could also get you killed. If there was a Necromorph around, she would deal with it.

And deal with it she would.

She hadn't walked ten feet from the boulder when the grotesque figure of a Necromorph came charging at her from behind, giving her only a slit second to jump out of the way.

Narrowly avoiding being cut in two by the Slasher – her least favorite of the Necromorph monsters – Ellie aimed her gun at the creature's legs. Its scythe-like arms were razor sharp and dangerous, but she'd rather slow the thing down before shooting off the deadly appendages. Unfortunately, the gun hardly did a good job at dismembering it. What would have only taken a few well-placed shots from a plasma cutter was taking nearly a whole round per leg, and she didn't want to use up what little ammo she had on one Slasher.

Snarling at her, the blood coating its gory flesh frozen, it collapsed as both legs were severed from its body, and it desperately crawled after her with the scythes and small arms on its belly. Hungry and searching for fresh flesh to sink its teeth into, it hurriedly came after her, mouth wide to show off the bits of long rotted flesh stuck between its chipped, sharp teeth.

Quickly, she shot off one of the blade-like arms along with its head, and it finally stopped moving. She couldn't be certain that it was dead, seeing as it was technically already dead to start with, but she didn't give a damn so long as it couldn't do any damage.

Checking the time, she cursed under her breath upon noticing that precious minutes had been wasted with the Slasher, and she took off as fast as she could in the high snow towards the camp to find Isaac.

As she ran, she couldn't help but wonder how there were still Necromorphs if the Marker signal had been cut. It occurred to her that it was possible that the destruction of the signal only meant that a Convergence Event would never happen and that the "brother Moons" couldn't communicate with each other. There was no indication that the destruction of the signal would kill the Necromorphs. Perhaps the only way to stop the Necromorphs was to destroy the rest of the Red Markers.

The signal had stopped the Convergence Event that would destroy the human race, but unless the rest of the Markers were destroyed there would always be Necromorphs, at least that was her theory. If – _when_ – she found Isaac, she'd run her theory by him.

She became keenly aware that she wasn't alone, feeling eyes all around her, but she didn't stop running. She had less than twenty minutes to find Isaac _and_ get back to the shuttle.

It seemed as though hours had passed by rather than minutes, but she eventually came across something in the snow that made her heart skip a beat in fear, dread, and hope. Just visible beneath the snow was blood.

Running over, she moved the snow away to uncover the red ice in the snow. Looking around more closely, she found similar marks of frozen blood in the shape of boot prints heading in the direction of the camp. Had she been delayed, the blood would have been completely hidden beneath the snow.

Despite fearing for his health after seeing the amount of blood, she at least knew he was alive and had been heading for shelter not too long ago.

But how hurt was he?

"Isaac?" Ellie shouted, running with renewed energy towards the camp, looking all around for any sign of the engineer. "Isaac, where are you?"

Before long, she stumbled into the long deserted camp and sucked in a breath.

From what she could see through the blizzard, there were bodies hanging everywhere and some ropes chewed through from where the corpses had come back to life as Necromorphs.

She stared at the bodies for a moment or two before cautiously continuing into the camp to search for Isaac.

Before coming to Tau Volantis, she thought that only the recently dead could be turned into Necromorphs. That was quickly disproved when they'd all fallen under attack by the reanimated corpses of two-hundred-year-old soldiers, doctors, scientists, and the like. So even though the bodies that remained hanging had been there for a couple hundred years, she moved with slow, calculated steps, her mind throwing out the names of every single Necromorph she knew of that the corpses could transform into.

Again, she had to remind herself to keep her thoughts from wandering as she approached one of the bunk-houses.

The door wouldn't respond to commands and there was no holographic button indicating that it had power of any kind. The blood trail was becoming more difficult to follow with the falling snow, but it was obvious that Isaac hadn't come to close to the structure so she returned to the blood trail to find his exact location.

His trail led her to each and every structure, all of which were void of power.

Except for one.

One building had a light on in the front and the holographic icon glowed blue on the door. Upon closer inspection, she saw that someone had tampered with the circuit box connected to the generator beside it.

Ellie was always the first one to make fun of Isaac for being an engineer, lovingly calling him a nerd, but she was damn glad that he knew what he did. Had it been her wandering around in the cold, she wouldn't have been able to get the generator for the building up and running.

Though her heart told her to rush inside to find Isaac, her head told her to cool her jets. It was likely that he was in there, but was he alone? Had he gone in there only to be attacked by a Necromorph? Too many scenarios ran through her mind, few of them pleasant.

A loud crash drew her attention towards the Moon, and her jaw dropped. The destruction was so close now, she could feel the ground trembling beneath her feet, could hear the small rocks hitting her helmet with more force, and she knew she had little time left without needed to check the time. In less than twenty minutes the blast would reach her location. If she didn't find Isaac _now _there might not be enough time to get back to the shuttle.

Holding her gun at the ready, Ellie pressed her hand to the holographic button and the door opened, granting her entrance.

Her suit registered that the temperature inside was far warmer than outside – about thirty degrees and slowly rising – so she retracted her helmet. Never had thirty degrees felt this warm.

The room that appeared to be an office of sorts, various files strung all over the place. Glancing at the floor, she spotted the blood trail leading to a room in the back, the door closed.

Swallowing, she walked towards the door, the fear of what she would find causing her hands to shake.

When at last she reached it, she hesitated, licking her suddenly dry lips. She pressed her ear to the door but heard nothing, and that did little to put her at ease. If anything it made her more nervous.

"Okay," she murmured, standing ready. "Okay."

With a deep breath, she opened the door, and immediately darted to the side to take cover from the shot of a plasma-cutter that blew past her head.

"Jesus, don't shoot, Isaac!" she shouted, carefully poking her head around the door-frame. "It's me!"

Frowning, sitting on the floor against the far wall with frozen blood and ice melting slightly on his short beard, Isaac lowered his weapon. "Ellie? What… I told you to leave!"

Ignoring his words, she darted into the room and collapsed to her knees beside him, throwing her arms around his neck tightly. One of his arms wrapped around her waist, seemingly forgetting that he'd been angry with her for coming for him and holding her close.

A hiss escaped his throat, however, when she tightened her arms, and Ellie pulled back upon remembering that he was injured.

There was a nasty gash on the right side of his forehead that extended into his hairline, dripping blood down his face, his left eye was black and blue and almost swollen shut. Looking over the rest of him, she saw that his suit was tattered with a few tears – unbelievable, considering that it was supposed to be puncture resistant – and his left hand was covering a wound on his left side, stanching the blood flow with pressure.

"How bad are you hurt?" Ellie asked even as she urged him to sit forward so she could take a look at his RIG. It didn't surprise her to see that it was red, leading her to believe that he had some internal damage. Her only source of relief came from the fact that it wasn't blinking.

Via small implants along the spine, the RIG could link into the wearer's nervous system and monitor their vitals and health. It was all incredibly complex, but basically, if the RIG was completely blue and full, the wearer was in excellent health, yellow usually meant the wearer was sick or injured to the point where they should seek medical attention soon, and red was a typical sign of an internal injury, severe bleeding, or a major injury to a limb. If it was blinking, that was an indication that they were dying soon and probably wouldn't make it to a hospital.

"Don't know," Isaac rasped, gritting his teeth when she pulled his hand away to get a better look. "Got hit by some shrapnel or a rock or something while getting tossed around up there. I think it's still inside. It kind of hurts to breath, too."

She nodded more to herself, fighting hard not to let her worry show. The wound was bad, _very _bad, and needed to be treated immediately if he were going to stand a chance at making it back to Earth Space, especially if he was complaining that breathing hurt. But before she could get up to go searching for a med-kit, the ground shook violently beneath her and she remembered that they were running out of time.

"We've got to go," she insisted, removing the helmet from her belt and putting it on his head. It struggle to attach to his suit, but it did so awkwardly. It wasn't perfect and wouldn't retain the maximum amount of heat, but it would keep him freezing to death. Hooking his right arm over her shoulder, she helped him to his feet.

"There isn't time, Ellie, I'll slow you down," he argued as he stood, grimacing.

"Oh, I think once you get a good look at what's coming towards us you'll move a bit faster."

Shaking his head as he stumbled quickly out of the building, holding onto Ellie for support, he looked out at the crashing Moon as its wave of destruction of dirt, rubble, snow, and everything else came towards them, steadily getting closer and closer.

The sight succeeded in getting moving a little faster, but he snapped angrily, "Damn it, Ellie, you shouldn't be here! I told you to get to safety!"

"I guess your bad ideas are rubbing off on me," she retorted sharply. "Now move your ass before we both become permanent residents!"

Despite the adrenaline surging through her system, Ellie was struggling to maintain the fast pace she'd set with Isaac leaning on her for support. He could probably walk on his own, but run? No, that was too much for his battered body to handle, especially with his injured side, and thus he had to put a majority of his weight on her in order to keep running.

Relying on the ping of her locator to get them back to the shuttle, she didn't check her wrist device and didn't dare look back. With time running out, they couldn't chance even the smallest delay, and they certainly couldn't stop to investigate the snarling behind them.

In the minutes that passed, they'd been followed. There was no doubt that it was Necromorphs tailing them, but how many were there was a mystery, one neither wanted to unravel. They couldn't stop to deal with them and could only hope that they'd be able to out run them, or at least get back to the shuttle with the minutes to spare that could be spent shooting them.

One Necromorph, however, managed to get close and came up on Ellie's right.

"Isaac!" she screeched.

"I see it!"

He fired his plasma-cutter a few times, managing to separate the Waister's legs from its body. Barbed tentacles tore through the wounds and it kept coming towards them, but without its legs to carry it, it was resigned to crawl after them at a rather slow pace, increasing the distance between them and it.

It was taking considerably less time to get back to the shuttle, but it still felt far too long as the ground began to shake violently, the small rocks replaced with small boulder that landed all around them. The shuttle was close, so close that the ping was nearly one solid sound rather than a series of pings, but it felt too far away.

Or so she thought.

Through the thick blizzard, she saw the shuttle, rocks of various sizes littering the top, but none of which were threatening to the vessel.

Energy surged through her at the sight and she smiled beneath the helmet as she hauled Isaac towards the ship.

Just as they were within reach, a blast from the Moon reached them with the force of a tidal wave and propelled them forward and to the ground, causing Ellie to bite down on her tongue. A painful throb settled in her ankle and she knew she'd twisted it going down, but the pain was secondary to the panic she felt gathering in her gut.

The shuttle shook violently and skidded in the snow from the force, but otherwise remained upright.

Gritting her teeth, she helped Isaac to his feet, trying to ignore the fresh blood in the snow, and got to the shuttle, slamming her fist into the controls at the hatch before hurrying inside. She deposited him on the floor before running to the helm to take the controls and get them the hell out of dodge.

"This is going to be rough!" she warned tightly, taking the shuttle off the ground and into the air.

She didn't look back to see if Isaac had strapped himself in or found something to hold onto, too focused on dodging the huge boulders that were raining down around the shuttle. One boulder – possibly something from the ruins – slammed into the rear of the shuttle and caused them to spin for a few seconds and alarms to blare. Smoke reached her, but before she could look over her shoulder at the problem, she heard some pained groaning and hissing, followed by the sound of a fire extinguisher being used.

For just a split second, she looked back and saw Isaac bracing himself as he put out a small fire. The sight was enough to put that small fear at ease and she went back to maneuvering them through the debris field and out into open space.

Fire encased the shuttle as they shot up through the atmosphere, blocking her view of the chaos swirling around just outside. It was a little comforting, not being able to see it all, but it was also worrisome. With line of sight out the window, she had to rely on the shuttle's sensors in order to fly around the debris.

The shuttle rocked roughly, the controls vibrating sharply in her hands, and for several seconds she thought it would never end.

But then the fire dissipated and they were in the cold dark of space, and loud silence took hold of the shuttle. Allowing herself to loosen her grip, she steered around the remains of old ships and avoided the mines until she was clear from all threats.

Releasing the controls, sweat beaded on her forehead, she removed her helmet and breathed a sigh of relief. "We made it, Isaac," she called over her shoulder, rising to her feet and turning towards him with a relieved smile.

Wobbling, he too removed his helmet and it fell to the ground. "Yeah…" he muttered, swallowing as he held onto his side with one hand and tried to brace himself with the other. His skin had paled considerable and his legs were failing to support his weight while trying to move to one of the seats, the loss of blood beginning to take a serious toll. "Yeah, we… we…"

Darting from the helm to Isaac, Ellie quickly hooked her arms around his middle to help ease his fall to the ground.

"Isaac, stay with me," she pleaded, reaching for one of the med-kits under the seats and opening the box while trying to keep pressure on the gushing wound. Swearing when the oversized suit kept getting away, she grabbed his hands and placed them over his wound before removing the suit down to her waist. "We're going to get through this Isaac, okay? I just need you to stay awake."

He nodded, shaking, bleed seeping out from between his fingers. "I love you. You know that, right?"

Her throat tightened and she struggled not to see those words as a goodbye, then shook her head and replied, "Nope, I didn't know that. Must have forgotten. After you pull through this, you'll have to remind me."

A pained chuckle escaped him before he coughed, blood dotting his lips. "S'all getting blurry," he mumbled, words slurred and his blue eyes losing focus.

"Hey!" she snapped, abandoning the med-kit and placing her hand on his cheek, forcing him to look at her. "You stay with me, do you hear me? Don't you dare leave me, Isaac!"

He opened his mouth to speak but his eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head as his eyes fluttered closed.

"Isaac?" Ellie gently slapped his cheek and shook him, but received no response. "Isaac!"

* * *

_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **_**I've decided to make this a long, novel-like story. And there are going to be some rather happy chapters before things take a sharp turn, at which point this story will basically become my version of what I foresee **_**Dead Space 4 **_**being like. But while there will be happy moments, it won't be all sunshine and bunnies.**_

* * *

Returning to consciousness was a very disconcerting feeling.

Isaac's head felt as heavy as a bowling ball, and his hearing was somewhat distorted to where it sounded as though he were under water. He'd yet to try to open his eyes, but with the nausea and ache in his head, he was in no rush. He was, however, very confused.

Where the hell was he?

The last thing he remembered was putting out a small electrical fire in the back of the shuttle while Ellie flew around large chunks of debris from the Moon, ruins, and old ships. He also remembered the anger and panic he'd felt upon seeing her in the camp. Her face had been hidden by her helmet, but her voice made up for it and was enough to convince him not to take another shot at her, having believed her to be a Necromorph or an intruder or something. That was twice she'd risked her life to come back for him when he told her to leave. Getting into the shuttle had given him a flicker of hope that they'd be able to make up for the time they'd wasted fighting while together and the time they'd lost while apart, only to be jolted back to reality when the adrenaline wore off and the pain returned.

His head had been throbbing since clocking it while fighting the Necromorph Moon, blood stinging his right eyes, and his left eye hadn't felt much better after taking a rock to the face. The puncture resistance suit protected him from any Necromorphs who got close enough to take a swipe at him, and though battered and bruised, he'd been stable during a majority of the fight. But that all changed when he stepped onto the kinesis pad to hurl Markers into the Moon's eyes.

The kinesis pads he'd come across hurt like hell and gave him one hell of a headache while making his internal organs feel like they were being compressed, which was why he didn't stay on them any longer than necessary. In the case of the Necromorph Moon, he'd had to remain on the pad just to do any significant damage to the thing, resulting in him actually coughing up blood while he tried to take in air to sooth the unimaginable burn in his lungs. It took Carver half dragging him to the machine's core just so he could remove the Codex. When he was launched into the air, he thought it was all over, but then he noticed that the thrusters on his suit were relatively intact so he made a B-line through the debris and chaos towards the ground, preferring to die with ground beneath his feet.

That was when something struck him in the side, tearing right through the supposedly puncture resistant suit. It could have been a rock, a piece of glass, or even the stinger from a Leaper's tail, he really didn't know. Whatever it was, apparently an object soaring through the air at high speeds didn't apply to the suits description.

The wound bled profusely while he'd been wandering in the snow towards the camp and had continued to bleed once he and Ellie were on the shuttle, it just hadn't affected him until they were safe because of the adrenaline coursing through his body. After that, his memory became blurry and he could just barely remember Ellie hovering over him in a panic, begging him to stay awake as he lost consciousness.

He'd thought for sure that he was going to die, but he obviously hadn't, and from the sound of medical equipment beeping in the background he wasn't even on the shuttle.

Swallowing thickly, his mouth and throat unbelievably dry, Isaac slowly opened his eyes, blinking rapidly against the bright light above him. His eyes took a moment or two to adjust, but when he could keep them open without pain, he turned his head to the side and saw a device monitoring his heart rate and blood pressure along with more equipment, and he was laying on a medical bed. Given all that and the cleanliness of it all, he concluded that he was in a hospital on a planet or a med-bay on a ship.

Turning his attention to the window, his chest tightened and his heart rate rose.

There was an EarthGov poster on the wall outside the room, and if there was a poster of EarthGov, that meant that wherever he was the place was friendly with the government. Unsure of what his status was – was he still a wanted man or was he free to live his life? – he tried sitting up, eager to find Ellie but not eager to find out about his status.

A woman of Chinese decent wearing a lab coat started walking by the room before she looked at him through the window. Gasping, she hurried inside and gently but firmly pushed him back into a lying position.

"Ease there, Mr. Clarke," she warned. "You'll pop a stitch."

"Where…" he coughed, trying to clear his rough throat. "Where am I? Where's Ellie?"

"You're on Mars – the Ascension colony, to be specific. And Ellie's asleep in the chair to your right, so I urge you to please keep your voice down."

Looking quickly to his left, his head aching at the action, relief flooded through him at the sight of Ellie curled up in a chair, wearing a clean set of clothes while her arm pillowed her head. Her hair was undone, allowing her dark tresses to shield her face like a curtain while she slept.

"Thank God," he murmured, allowing himself to relax a little.

"Poor thing's hardly slept since arriving two days ago, though I suspect she's been up for the majority of the past three days – it took a whole day for you to reach us in that rickety little shuttle of yours," the doctor explained. "She finally let me talk her into taking a mild sedative. It should have worn off a good hour ago, but I suspect she'll stay asleep until jostled."

"She was hurt," Isaac pointed out quietly so as not to wake her. "She was exposed to some gas and had some deep cuts."

"Yes, she told me as much. The gas doesn't appear to have caused too much damage, just some mild burns, and her other wounds have already been stitched up. I applied some medical gel to her wounds and they're halfway healed already. You're injuries were more severe and will take a few more days to heal enough to where you can be released, but I'm happy to announce that you're going to be just fine, which is more than I can say from when you first came into my hospital."

"Who are you anyways? Is this an EarthGov hospital?"

"Oh, sorry, you must think I'm rude for just waltzing in here like I did without introducing myself," she apologized in a rush, cheeks reddening slightly. "I'm Dr. Madison Lang, and yes, technically this is an EarthGov funded hospital – technically. A majority of us in Ascension aren't particularly fond of EarthGov lately due to the rumors of their… less than savory activities, such as enforcing martial law in some sectors on Earth and colonies, bleeding us dry of resources, and whatever else it is they do when they aren't fighting Unitologists," she explained, moving the sheet to examine the wound on his side. "During this past year, myself and some other doctors here have taken to catering to patients who are on their shit list – such as yourself and Ellie. Met her while she was being chased down by some soldiers, as matter of fact. She had a very nasty wound to her abdomen, so I brought her here for treatment. I assure you, you're quite safe in this hospital. Though I fear that won't last for very long," she admitted with a sigh. "After this business Ellie told me about involving the Markers and some planet, I suspect you'll have return to playing hide and seek with EarthGov and the Unitologists."

That caught Isaac off guard, and though his flinched when she removed the bandage from his wounded side, his eyes remained on her. While everyone was aware that Markers were the center of the Unitology faith, not a lot of people knew just how real of a threat they were to the human race.

"You know about the Markers?" he questioned uneasily.

Madison nodded. "My parents are hardcore Unitologists. I rebelled as a teenager but ended up seeing just how twisted the religion was. The rest is history, and I haven't seen or heard from them since I was eighteen. Not a bad thing, mind you. They weren't exactly parents of the year, and since this whole mess with EarthGov and the Unitologists over the Red Markers, I'm glad I didn't stick around or keep in contact. That's a headache I do not desire."

He nodded fractionally, able to relate to where she was coming to some degree in regards to her family. His mother had spent almost all their money to get a higher status with the Church, forcing him to turn down the chance to go to a highly respected engineering academy. That was just the tip of the iceberg in regards to why he hated Unitologists.

"This is healing nicely," Madison said to herself with an approving nod, examining the wound on his side. "Later on I'll run a scan to see how your internal injuries are healing up."

"Felt like my insides had been tied into a knot," he muttered, recalling the pain.

"I'm not surprised. You had massive internal bleeding, and that was just a fraction of your problems. The metal I pulled from your side sliced through an artery, your lungs were practically sandpaper, and to top it all off you had a fever and concussion." Applying a fresh coat of medical gel to the wound, she bandaged it and patted his arm before pressing a button on the bed, adjusting the position of the bed so he could sit up. "You're a luck man, Isaac Clarke. If Ellie hadn't gotten you to me when she did, you'd be lying in the morgue. That being said, she did do a rather impressive job of stopping the bleeding, which probably saved your life in the long run."

That wasn't surprising. Ellie was too stubborn to just let him die, and he was glad for that. He might not have been very appreciative when she first hurried through the door while the Moon was crashing into the planet, but he truly was grateful. She was more than he deserved, he'd known that since starting a relationship with her about three years ago.

Madison's RIG pinged and she raised her arm to view a message a colleague sent to her. "So sorry, Mr. Clarke, but I've got to run. I'll be back in a bit to get you for that scan," she said, making her way to the door. She then hesitated, looked back, and walked over to Ellie, giving her a light shake.

Yawning with a tired stretch, she blinked slowly and looked up at Madison. Upon seeing the doctor smiling and inclining her head to the side, Ellie looked over in Isaac's direction, her eyes widening immediately.

"Isaac!" Springing from the chair, fully awake, she went to the bed and perched herself on the side. Careful of his injuries, she leaned into him, her arms going around him with her face buried in his shoulder while his went about her slim waist.

Isaac bit back the mild, burning pain in his side and held her impossible close, breathing in the scent of her hair and neck, remembering how certain he'd been that he'd never get the chance to hold her again.

The first time he held her the way he was now was immediately following the Sprawl incident, and the memory was seared into his brain.

After Ellie came and pulled his ass out of the fire, Isaac had helped her pick through the star charts for a safe planet to dock at – one with minimal EarthGov and Unitology presence. Once one was found, Ellie turned her attention to him and "ordered" him out of his suit so she could examine his stab wounds. She'd been as gentle as she could, but a doctor she was not.

He'd hissed, flinched, and jumped while she cleaned the wound, and she teased him more often than she didn't and was rather short about it. It wasn't until she had his shoulder and hand thoroughly coated with medical gel and bandaged that she lashed out at him, revealing what had her in a bad mood.

Ellie had been absolutely furious that he'd sent the gunship away with her in it but without him, and shouted at him for a good few minutes, demanding why he dared befriend her only to separate them, why he didn't want her help, and why he wanted to leave her alone out in space. It surprised him to hear that him sending her away to safety had hurt her so much. After losing her eye because she'd agreed to watch Stross and keep the unstable man safe, he would have thought that she'd hate him and would have desired to be away from him.

Unable to find the words that would make everything okay and torn up but her one eye tearing up, he'd pulled her into his chest and held her tightly as if she was the only thing in the world that mattered, while she returned the embrace like he would disappear on her.

That was how the held each other now, trying to reassure and comfort each other as much as themselves.

But then Isaac felt his neck become damp with her tears so he brought his hands to her shoulders and gently urged her to sit up.

Sniffling, tears falling from her mismatched blue and green eyes, she stared at him angrily. "You're a real bastard, you know that? 'Just leave me behind'?" she questioned incredulously, repeating what he'd told her over the comms. "How dare you try to put me through that again?"

"I was already dying, and I didn't want to risk you getting hurt," he explained, thumbing away her falling tears before threading his fingers through her hair in a soothing manner. "Don't get me wrong – I wanted nothing more than to see you again, to make up for lost time, but… that just seemed like a fools dream, you know?"

"So you decided to contact me and tell me to go away?" She shook her head, grasping his hands to hold them tightly. "God, Isaac, hearing your voice made me disengage the shuttle's shockdrive and turn back! How could you think that I could just leave you to die when I knew you were alive when I couldn't do that on the Sprawl?"

Something about what she said struck a cord, and he asked sadly, "You said you knew I was alive, but what about Carver."

The anger drained from Ellie's face and she turned her eyes away from his, shaking her head. "I didn't hear from him, just you. If I had, I would have tried to get to him, but... Isaac, either way there would have only been enough time to get one of you. I'm sorry."

Isaac said nothing in return, but couldn't help but feel an intense guilt settle in his chest.

After getting back to the planet, his concern had been for himself, and it hadn't once crossed his mind to search for Carver. He didn't actually see the soldier die, only saw him get sucked out into the chaos after Isaac dealt with the Codex. It occurred to him, much to his horror, that Carver may have actually survived the incident, only to be killed when the Moon crashed into the planet because he didn't go searching for him so that Ellie would find them both.

Just like Santos, he'd failed his friend.

"I know that look," Ellie murmured, dragging his guilt ridden eyes back to hers. "Isaac, don't go blaming yourself for his death, okay? His wife and child were dead, and he felt like he had nothing left to live fore. As terrible as it is, it was what he wanted in the long run, you know that."

Isaac nodded slowly, throat tight. It might have been what Carver wanted, but Isaac still felt guilty.

Not wanting Ellie to worry because of his self-blame, he commented,"You know, with a Necromorph Moon crashing into the planet, I didn't think you'd be crazy enough to try to find me."

"Guess I'm almost as crazy as you," she joked half-heartedly, dragging her thumb along the scar on his left palm. Her slight smile leaving, she released a shaky breath and pleaded softly, "Don't ever do that to me again, Isaac, okay?"

"I won't, I promise," he assured her before pulling her in to seal his promise with a hard kiss to her mouth. Ellie responded with equal need, her soft lips hot against his.

Threading his fingers through her dark hair, he deepened the already passionate kiss, swiping his tongue along her lower lip. She responded with a gasp, complying eagerly and opening her mouth under his, her fingers digging into the back of his neck.

Before the kiss could get too out of hand in the hospital room, he eased them down from their high, slowing the kiss to something more sensual, before pulling away just enough to breath but keeping his forehead pressed against hers, needing the contact.

Taking a much needed breath, Ellie then sight and confessed quietly, "I missed you."

Isaac knew that she was talking about more than just their time apart while she was on the shuttle and while he was unconscious, and his throat tightened. "Missed you, too. More than you can imagine."

"So, what do we do now?" she asked, her blue and green eyes bright with hope but uncertainty.

He thought for a moment, and then shifted on the bed, lowering it back into its flat position and urging Ellie to lie with him. Once she was pressed firmly into his side, mindful of his wound, with her arm around his torso, he replied thoughtfully, "We pick up where we left off. We try to make a life for ourselves and leave all the shit behind us. The Marker threat's gone – maybe now we can have a semi-normal life."

"Necromorphs were still on Tau Volantis, Isaac," she reminded him worriedly. "And then there's EarthGov, the Unitologists… how in the world could we achieve anything remotely close to a normal life?"

Isaac said nothing for a minute.

The fact that the Necromorphs hadn't been wiped out when he ended the threat was concerning, but maybe they'd "die off" eventually. Now that the signal was gone, a Convergence Event couldn't ever take place, and that had been the singular threat to the human race. Once he was well, he'd do some digging into how the Red Markers had been affected by the events on Tau Volantis. As for EarthGov and the Unitologists, they would be a problem for both him and Ellie until the day they died.

"We keep our heads low and go somewhere with little EarthGov influence – whatever influence they have left. Same goes for the Unitologists. As for the Necromorphs, all we can do is keep our eyes open. It might take time for the effects of the destruction of the Moon to reach every Necromorph and Marker."

She snorted lightly. "You make it sound simple."

"Not saying it will be," he admitted, trailing his fingers up and down her arm. "But we can make this, us, work this time around."

"I hope so," she sighed, snuggling deeper into his arms. "Being apart was hard the first time around. I don't want to go through another break up again."

"That won't happen again, I promise," he insisted sincerely, holding her tighter. Pressing a kiss to her hair, he whispered, "I love you, Ellie. I mean that."

"Love you, too," she sighed happily, kissing one of the many scars on his chest before yawning, still tired despite having slept for hours.

"Get some sleep," Isaac instructed, shifting them both so that they were more comfortable. "We'll figure everything out later."

Ellie nodded against his chest, breathing deep as she let her exhaustion take over. Within minutes, she was out completely, her breathing slowed, but Isaac remained awake.

Having been unconscious left him oddly tired, but he wasn't tired enough to fall asleep just yet. Instead, he watched the woman in his arms sleep for a while, attempting to assure himself that it was all very real, that she was real, and that it wasn't some hallucination. After spending the past three years with constant nightmares involving Nicole and seeing things that weren't there, he was rarely able to be sure of anything. But Ellie was real and she was with him and she was safe.

Isaac hoped that having Ellie with him again, the signal destroyed, and accepting his fears and conquering them would begin to heal his scarred mind, but only time would tell if he could finally get over the Marker's effects.

* * *

_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **_**Sorry for the delay. I hit a little speed bump that led to me rewriting the chapter from scratch.**_

_**Also, as I said things are going to be rather "calm" for Isaac and Ellie for a few chapters, sort of like the calm before the storm, but things will be far from perfect. **_

* * *

"We've lived in worse places," Isaac commented quietly as he and Ellie took stock of the apartment they were interested in renting.

After Dr. Madison Lang told him that he was free to leave the hospital provided he applied medical gel to his remaining wounds, took the pills she prescribed to him, and took it easy for a while, he and Ellie went on a speed search for a place to live for a while.

While he was recovering, Ellie had sold the shuttle to someone Madison had pointed her to and convinced him that living in the Ascension colony, if only for a while, was safe. With the Unitology War still going on to some degree, the colony had been forced to take side and had publicly sided with EarthGov. Realistically, however, the colony was sick and tired of both factions and thus there was very little EarthGov presence in the colony, and there was no longer a Unitology Church in the area.

For at least a while, they could be safe, and after some mild arguing, Ellie convinced him that they didn't need to rush out of the colony.

Isaac didn't really care where they lived as long as they were together, but he wanted Ellie to be happy so he tried to find the best place they could afford. Considering how little they had in the form of cash, that was asking a lot, which was sad because only ten years ago the money they had could have let them rent a relatively nice place. The economy was going down the drain faster than it could be repaired, and everyone was hurting.

As it was, the "best" place they'd come across thus far was the apartment they were currently looking at. There was a large room that would have to be both the bedroom and living room, but along with a bathroom, there was a separate room that was a kitchen. It was more than they had in New Horizons, but it was hardly five-star. The cream colored paint was badly chipped, the tile in the kitchen and bathroom were cracked, and the carpeting was badly stained. But as he said, they'd lived in worse apartments.

Ellie glanced at him over her shoulder as she checked the electric, plumbing, and ensured that there were no pests running around even after he'd already checked. "It smells funny in here," she commented, walking through the kitchen that had seen better days.

There was a musty smell in the air, so Isaac shrugged and replied, "We can get some air fresheners."

"The pipe is leaky."

"I can fix that."

"So you're a plumber now, are you?" she asked with a raised brow, looking away from the sink.

"No," he admitted, fighting a smile. "But if you try to fix it, you'll flood the place."

She scoffed. "I will not."

"You did last time," he retorted, and she snapped her mouth shut. Sighing when she once again went looking for problems, he said gently, "We don't have to rent the place, Ellie. We can keep looking."

Stopping her search, she leaned back against a door frame and looked at him in resignation. "No we can't. We both know this is about a good a place as we're going to find."

Isaac moved away from where he was standing in the middle of the room and went to her, settling his hands on her arms, and asked, "So, what's the problem?"

"It's just, well…" she trailed off momentarily as if torn between lying and telling him the truth, before settling on the truth. "Before things went to hell, I'd moved in with Robert, and he had a very nice, three bedroom apartment with a beautiful view, and… I don't know, maybe I got spoiled or something."

Jealousy found its way into his chest at the mention of Norton, and then guilt that he'd taken her from what sounded like a comfortable life by shooting the man. The Captain had betrayed them all and threatened both his life and Carver's, yes, but had it been necessary to kill him? Couldn't he have just shot him in the leg?

"I'm sorry," he murmured, his hands tightening on her arms slightly.

Ellie frowned. "What for?"

"That I can't give you all that… that I sabotaged things between you and Norton, and –"

"No. God, Isaac, you need to stop blaming yourself for everything," she snapped sharply, bringing her hands up to cup either side of his face. "What I said about you sabotaging my relationship and everything else, I was just upset and confused – I meant none of it. Robert brought his death on himself. It wasn't your fault. And I would rather live in a shit-hole with you than in a mansion with anyone else. All I was saying was that I'd gotten spoiled, nothing more. We can move in here, really," she insisted, lowering her hands to his chest, fixing the labels of his brown leather coat. "A fresh coat of paint and a few repairs, and this place could be downright homey."

She could tell him to stop blaming himself all she wanted, but it didn't change the fact the self-blame managed to find its way into his heart whether he wanted it to or not.

"This place is _fine_, Isaac," she insisted.

"Yeah, all right." Pushing aside his personal issues regarding blame, he eased his hold on her arms and instead wrapped her in a gentle embrace, holding her close as her head came to rest on his shoulder. "With any luck, Madison's husband will pull through with that engineering job down at the spaceport and we'll have at least some money coming in to make this dump more personal."

"You sure it's wise to go work down at the spaceport?" Ellie asked worriedly. "EarthGov might be living its last days, but it's still around. Working at the spaceports seems to be asking to get caught."

"Probably not, but I'd be working under the table and making good money," he reasoned, though he too was concerned about the job he might get.

"And if an EarthGov ship docks?"

He sighed. "Then I get a call telling me to take the day off, or, if I'm already working, I leave early. I won't be the only one working who's got a target on their back."

Adam – Madison's husband – informed him that the guy down at the spaceports running the engineering crew, Vincent Miller, hated EarthGov and had a habit of giving work to people who wanted to stay under the radar. It wasn't that Vincent disliked their methods; he just got fed up with the government taking a majority of his profits. So, Vincent ran a "private" engineering business right in the spaceport, making repairs to the ships that passed through.

Ellie didn't like the idea of him working for someone as sketchy Vincent Miller, but neither could deny that they needed the money. All they had in their pockets was the cash they got from selling the shuttle, and while that was enough to rent the apartment, it would only get them through the rest of the week food-wise.

They couldn't afford to be picky in terms of work.

"Just be careful, okay? Madison said not to push yourself too hard until your side is healed completely," Ellie reminded him.

"Yes, Mom," he muttered, receiving a lighthearted smack on his chest. With the mood brightened at least a little bit, he kissed her cheek before stepping away from her to inform the landlord that they'd take the apartment.

* * *

Ellie waited until Isaac was out of sight before sighing heavily and sitting down on the couch.

The place came with a queen-size bed, couch, table with three chairs, and a few pots, pans, and dishes in the kitchen, and thank God they were all in good condition. Above all else, she was relieved to find that the mattress was still wrapped in plastic, having been recently bought. If it had been a used bed, she'd have put her foot down and gone out to buy a new mattress.

But that wasn't the issue.

She was concerned about Isaac always blaming himself for things that weren't his fault. He'd been that way ever since the Sprawl, constantly blaming himself for building the Red Marker, for the deaths of everyone there because of his actions, and for her lost eye because he'd had her look after Stross. Now he was doing it again because of the people who died on the mission to Tau Volantis. None of it was his fault, it was just bad luck. Were he anyone else, she'd suggest that he go seek therapy to deal with everything, but what he'd seen – what they both had seen – was beyond the help of therapy. All they could do was be there for each other, and she just hoped that this time around he let her bare the weight of some of his problems and help him.

Then there was EarthGov, but they were a problem all their own. The galaxy was going down the drain financially and resources were becoming more and more scarce. Planet cracking wasn't cutting it, and the government had turned to the Markers, believing them to be a source of power when in fact they weren't. And because Isaac knew how to build them, they wanted him whether he came along willingly or not. There were very few in EarthGov who knew the Markers were trouble, and she'd been fortunate enough to know a few of those people – though she regretted trusting Norton as much as she had. Unless EarthGov miraculously found some new resource, they'd continue to hunt Isaac, and the Unitologists seemed destined to always search for him because of the knowledge in his head whether the Marker threat was over or not – if it was actually over.

Either way, they were stuck.

"Well, the place is ours," Isaac announced, walking back inside. "Rent's due the first of every month, no exceptions. Any repairs are our responsibility, and if we cause problems he'll kick us out in a heartbeat."

"Sounds like New Horizons," she commented dryly, but then added, "At least we have a kitchen, though. That's a plus. We won't have to constantly order takeout."

"Yeah, because you hated takeout," he teased, coming to sit beside her on the couch.

"No," she argued as she reclined back, leaning into his uninjured right side. "I hated the fridge we had to put the leftovers in. The roaches looked like rats, and I draw the line at them being in the fridge."

"You and me both, but you could only set off so many bug bombs when the tenant next door was essentially breeding them. At least this landlord seems adamant about treating bug problems right away, so I doubt we'll run into that issue again."

She certainly hoped they didn't. Constantly having to check for roaches was disconcerting, and though they had gotten rid of the little pests eventually, she still felt as though she had to check everything while living back in New Horizons.

For some minutes, the two were content to just relax on the dark brown couch and pretend that nothing else was going on in the galaxy. If they could have stayed like that all the time, Ellie would have been incredibly happy. Unfortunately, there was no way they could stay like that, not when her thoughts kept turning towards the Markers and Necromorphs.

Since they'd yet to sit down and discuss everything, she began tentatively, "Isaac, I know you said you wanted to wait until we settled down –"

"Ellie –"

"I just think we should talk about the possibility that it isn't over!" she said in a rush.

"It _is _over, Ellie," he insisted, rising from the couch. Walking to the window, he stared outside at the setting sun. "The Marker signal was disrupted and can't reach the other Moons, so this thing can't spread. It's over."

Sitting forward with her elbows resting on her knees, she asked gently, "You don't believe that, though, do you?"

Isaac said nothing for a long moment, but she required no answer. His tone had said it all. He didn't really believe it was over, but he didn't want to admit it.

When he at last found the words, he said tightly, "All I know is that we've done what we can. The rest is beyond our control."

She stood up from the couch. "Beyond our control? Isaac, you're the only one who really knows how to fight these things, how to destroy the Markers! If this isn't over, you need to try to stop it – _we _need to try to stop it! I thought you said you weren't afraid anymore?"

"This has nothing to do with fear, Ellie!" Isaac snapped, rounding on her, irritated that they were even discussing it.

"Then tell why the hell won't you even talk about it?"

"What do you want me to say?" Stalking towards her until he was only a foot from her, he continued with his voice raised, "Do I want the Marker threat to be over? Yes. Would I help if I could? Yes! Now, you tell me where to start. Should I go looking for another fucking Moon, is that what you want to do? The first one nearly got me killed, so maybe the second one will finish the job, is that what you want to happen?"

Ellie blinked, taken aback by his outburst, and she was once again reminded of their arguments about the Markers before Tau Volantis. He'd say some pretty hurtful things in the heat of the moment that he didn't mean, and it was happening all over again.

Realizing what he said, Isaac ran his hand over his face before reaching for her. "Shit, Ellie, I didn't mean that."

Swatting his hand away, Ellie picked up her coat from one of the chairs and started towards the door. "I'll see you later, Isaac," she muttered angrily.

"Ellie, don't leave again," he pleaded, hurrying after her. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"I'm not leaving for good, I just need some air," she insisted, needing to get away for a bit before she did something rash.

"Ellie –"

She was out the door and jogging to the elevator before he could catch up to her. She felt absolutely terrible for walking out like that, but if she didn't leave then and there the argument would spiral out of control like it used to and she'd say something rash, he'd react badly, she'd get pissed, and they wouldn't talk for the rest of the night. By leaving, she could clear her head and give him time to think.

Unlike last time she walked out, she did plan on coming back.

Isaac wasn't getting rid of her that easy. She just hoped their rekindled relationship was smoother than it originally was for both their sakes.

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_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **_**Contains strong adult content. I've tried to keep it as tasteful as possible.**_

_**Sorry for the slight delay, there was a coffee shortage. In all seriousness, I've got a bad habit of "falling out of love" with a story and not writing anything for it for a while, but I'll then "fall back in love" and write a new chapter, and then the process will repeat. It's an annoying habit, but it happens. Either way, this story won't be abandoned, but there may be delays from time to time.**_

_**I also nearly had a heart attack when another document I was working on saved over this chapter. You don't know how relieved I was when I was able to restore it to its original version. That is not a feeling I ever want to feel again!**_

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There were many forms of torture in the galaxy, but waiting for Ellie to come back was the worst form of torture Isaac believe existed.

It had been a good four hours since she'd left and the light outside had long since given way to the night, the sun being replaced by the vast amount of stars. He'd tried to occupy himself by unpacking the two duffel bags they had that contained all they had, hangin up the clothes from one while checking the weapons from the other. But he could only clean the weapons so many times before getting antsy and going in search of something else to ease his raging thoughts. He'd even tried to fix some of the problems with the apartment, but was unable to seeing as he didn't have the necessary tools, and he wasn't about to leave and go looking for the appropriate tools until Ellie came back.

Carver had claimed that Isaac had an obsession with Ellie, and he wasn't going to deny that he was right to some extent. For so long since meeting her, his life revolved around her. Each day had been spent trying to make her happy, trying to keep her safe, and just trying to keep their lives going. At first it was a way for him to make up for his failure with Nicole as well as make up for his role in causing her to lose her eye, no matter how indirectly he'd caused her to lose her eye. It didn't take long for his reasons to change. Soon his reasons for protecting her and keeping her happy became far more personally.

No matter how hard he tried, however, he always ended up failing her somehow.

Hurting her as a result of his nightmares once they started sleeping together, bruising or cutting her while under the belief he was fighting Nicole or some other hallucination, tore him up inside and was one reason why he chose to keep his demons locked up. She saw a glimpse of his demons when his hallucinations and nightmares took hold, and he didn't feel like he should hurt her any more by knowing what was going on in his head, the full extent of his problems and what he saw as a result of the Markers.

Some things were meant to stay secret, but Ellie didn't believe that. She'd always been adamant about wanting to shoulder some of the weight he carried. She wanted to help him just as he helped her, and he loved her even more for it. He wished he could talk to her about what went on in his head, but he was afraid he'd scare her off.

He snorted and muttered, "If hitting her in my sleep didn't scare her off, what will?"

The only things that had in fact chased her off were his inability to help her fight the Markers because he was afraid as well as his inability to watch what came out of his big mouth in an argument.

Both of them could be cruel when upset – Ellie having proved that after Norton died before apologizing, and he a few hours ago. The difference was that Ellie didn't lose her temper without a reason, whereas he argued and said hurtful things as a defense mechanism where there was no reason to be so angry.

They both had issues, but his affected his life in a way that hers didn't.

Rubbing his side, Isaac became acutely aware how sore the injury had become and went into the bathroom to retrieve the supplies Madison had given him.

The medical gel would quicken the healing process and ensure that the wound stayed closed, and the pills were both for pain and to aid in the healing of the rest of his injuries, so he tugged off his dark blue shirt and tossed it onto the hamper. Carefully pealing the bandage off and tossing it into the trash, he applied a thin coat of the silvery gel to the jagged wound. The gel stung as it seeped into the wound and he gripped the sink tightly before breathing out and popping one of the pain pills into his mouth. Though the pain wasn't terrible, it was irritating enough for him to be happy for the pills.

For a moment, he contemplated putting some gel on the cut on his head where he'd been clocked so hard his helmet busted, but he opted against it. While it had been a deep gash, it was healing quicker than his side was and no longer required a bandage, let alone gel. All gel would do was aid in preventing it from scaring, but scars were hardly a concern of his so he didn't use it on his head.

Isaac washed the remaining gel from his hands and then placed a clean bandage over the wound as the pills quickly went to work, dulling the pain in record time. Soon, there would be no trace of the pain to speak of. Idly, he stared at the pill bottle, wishing the pills could take away not only his physical pain and heal his body, but the take away the emotion pain he'd experience since the Ishimura and heal the scars in his mind that always saw fit to cause him and those around him trouble. He supposed he could turn to the pills as a sort of temporary relief to everything, but the last thing he needed on his plate was a drug addiction.

Sighing heavily, screwed the cap back onto the bottle and returned it and the bottle of medical gel to the cabinet and then turned to lean back against the sink.

Ellie was right, and he had lied to her. He was still afraid, but not of what she thought.

As he was dwelling on the cause of his fear, he heard the front door slide open and shut a second later as someone entered.

Instinct told him not to rush out of the bathroom with the assumption that it was Ellie, but he didn't listen to instinct and he quickly stepped out of the bathroom.

Ellie stood just inside the apartment, removing her jacket and draping it over a chair.

Relief flooded his whole being and he hurried over to her, embracing her tightly just as she turned around to face him.

She hesitated for only a second, having not known he was there, before returning his hug just as tightly. "I said I was coming back," she reminded him gently.

"I know," he murmured into her dark hair. "You walked out other times and came back, but there was the one time I thought you would and you didn't."

Her fingers dug into the back of his shoulders as she held him tighter, remembering all too well the one time she didn't come home. It was something neither of them would forget any time soon.

"I just needed to clear my head, Isaac," she insisted. "We both needed some room to breathe."

"Yeah." He pulled back fractionally and brought his hand to her cheek, dragging his thumb softly under her right eye. "And you were right, but I'm not afraid of what you were thinking of – about the Markers."

"Then what is it?"

Sighing, he ran his hands down her arms then back up to her shoulders as he tried to figure out how to phrase what he wanted to say. Sometimes finding the right words was harder than anything else.

Ellie gave him the time he needed, and for that he was grateful.

"I've put you in an unfair position twice now, and each time I've caused you to risk your life to come back for me," he explained slowly, pulling back the collar of her shirt just enough to see one of her cuts that would end up scarring, hating that she'd been hurt. "If we start looking for every single Marker threat, we'll be in the position again where it'll be safer for you to leave me."

"I'd never leave you behind, Isaac, not if I know you're alive," she started, but he placed his hands on either side of her face, and laid his thumb on her lips to silence her.

"I know that, and that's what I'm afraid of," he admitted. "You've been lucky to get us both out alive each time, but you might not be so lucky the third time. I don't want to be the reason you end up dead. I don't want you to die for me if you have a chance to live without me."

Ellie stared at him in disbelief that his main fear was the fear of causing her death.

He didn't understand how it could be anything but obvious.

She was his everything, his very reason for living. Some things were more important than either one of them living – Earth surviving the Marker threat – but to him, very little was more important to him than her. If he had to, he could choose to save everyone as opposed to just her like he'd almost done when Danik had a gun to her head before Carver threw the maniac the Codex, but he never wanted to put her in that position ever again. She didn't deserve to be in that position, or any dangerous position.

What he would do if he could was keep her safely hidden from all existing threats in the galaxy, but she wouldn't have any of it and she wouldn't be the woman he loved if she stayed away from danger.

Ellie was incredibly brave and strong willed, and that was just a couple of the things he loved about her.

"Isaac," Ellie sighed in both understanding and annoyance, and she raised her hand to gently trace the healing wound on the side of his head. "Get it through your thick skull that it's the same for me. I can't bear the thought of living without you in my life. Hell, it took Robert constantly yapping about how I was better off with him and not you for me to stop thinking about you for an hour. The two of you… I kept comparing him to you, and each time I came to the conclusion that you are a much better man than he was, but I couldn't go back or try to change things until I at least checked out Tau Volantis. But I knew that I might end up needing your help so before I left I told him where to find you. I would have thought he'd have enlisted your help sooner, but I guess he was worried about us being reunited." Rising to her toes, she pressed a soft kiss to his mouth, lingering there for a few seconds before pulling back only fractionally to look at him, searching his light blue eyes with her blue and green ones. "Isaac, if our positions were reversed and you knew I was alive, would you risk your life to save me?"

His thoughts wondered to the lab where Rosetta was being housed, and how the toxic gas threatened to swallow Ellie whole while he and Carver struggled with the elevator door. She'd told him to leave and that she loved him, believing that she was going to die, but even with the gas rushing towards him he couldn't close the door. If it were for Carver putting his back into it and forcing it shut, they both would been killed. Even when it seemed like she was going to die and his and Carver's lives at risk, he couldn't bring himself to close that damn door.

Threading his fingers through her hair, glad that she wore it down for a change as he loved to run her fingers through her soft locks, he admitted quietly, "You know I'd come for you."

"Then stop trying to make me do something you wouldn't do," she snapped lightly, smoothing her hands down his chest. "I won't leave you, just as you won't leave me."

"I just don't want to be the reason you die, Ellie," Isaac whispered, kissing her once, twice, then breaking away just long enough to say, "I love you."

"I love you, too," she murmured before losing herself in their kiss, her arm hooking around his neck as she balanced on her toes.

Instinct and desire taking over, Isaac urged her backwards until her back was flush against the wall, allowing him to press his body against her without the fear of either of them losing balance. Her lips parted beneath his and closed his fingers in her hair, deepening the kiss until her satisfied hum of approval flowed from her lungs to his mouth.

"This…" she started when his mouth left hers, only to gasp when he tilted her head back to place open mouthed kisses to her neck. "This isn't taking it easy. You injuries –"

"Will be fine," he breathed against her neck, darting his tongue out against the one spot that would drive her wild, and she did not disappoint him.

Ellie made a noise in the back of her throat and her fingers dug into the back of his neck and shoulder as her legs weakened under the attention he was paying to the soft skin of her neck just under her jaw. When he slid his hand up and under her dark purple shirt to cup her bra-clad breast, she moaned in want, and he abruptly pulled his hand from her receiving a gasp that was both of surprise and frustration.

Ignoring her disapproval, he grasped the hem of her shirt, pulled it over her head, and tossed it aside before reaching for the hooks of her simple black bra, nudging the RIG out of the way so he could fumble with the hooks. When at last the hooks came undone, he pulled her flush against him and held her tight, a low groan rising from his throat at the feel of her hot chest pressed against his and he lowered her mouth to hers again, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss that left them both breathless.

They began moving, he backing up and she moving forward, and he wasn't sure who was leading but within no time the backs of his knees came into contact with the mattress. Before her had a chance to think, Ellie gently but forcefully pushed him back onto the bed with a smile, her lips swollen from their kisses and her eyes dark with desire.

Quickly, she went to work on removing her RIG from the implants on her upper back and then her jeans and panties, and he followed her example, his heart hammering as he removed his own pants and boxers in record time, breathing a sigh of relief when his member was finally freed from the uncomfortable confines.

His eyes never left her as she finished undressing and he was once again struck by how truly beautiful she was with her dark olive skin, slender hips, toned belly, and…

She made to join him on the bed, but he stopped her, grasping her by the hips.

Frowning, she asked breathlessly, "What is it?"

Isaac glanced up at her eyes before turning his attention to the long scar on her ribcage, just below her breast that extended clear to her opposite hip. It was as if someone had literally tried to gut her, and he traced his fingers along the scar. He had her body memorized and that scar hadn't been there when she left him.

"_Met her while she was being chased down by some soldiers, as matter of fact. She had a very nasty wound to her abdomen, so I brought her here for treatment."_

Madison's words rang loud and clear in his mind, and Isaac asked tightly, "Did EarthGov do this to you?"

Swallowing thickly, sifting her fingers through his short, greying black hair, she nodded. "A small squad tracked me down on the outskirts of the colony. They were under orders to detain me for interrogation, hoping I'd tell them where you were, but one of them… he had a different plan."

"What did he do?" he demanded, dragging his eyes off her scar to look up at her eyes, noticing how she was looking everywhere but at him. "Ellie, did he…?"

"No, no, it was nothing like that. I wasn't raped," she assured him immediately, quickly looking at him once she realized he'd gotten the wrong idea.

Immense relief flooded through him like a tidal wave, and he smoothed his hands up and down her sides, making her shiver. If she had been raped, he didn't know what he would have done.

"So, what happened?" he asked, dragging his thumb over the scar.

"They decided to put out a video of them killing me," she replied, and his hands tightened on her sides. "Got it in their heads that you'd come looking for them if you saw the video, so they decided that it'd be better to just cut me up and use me as bait. I managed to get away, but not before the man took a swing at me with his knife. He got me pretty good, but it was more superficial than life threatening. Still, I needed help and ended up running into Madison. The rest is pretty self-explanatory."

Isaac ground his teeth and dropped his eyes back to the long, painful looking scar and imagined her running with blood soaking through her shirt as she tried to get away from the soldiers hell bent on killing her so she could be used to lure him out. It made him sick, that image in his head, and he pulled her closer until she stood between his legs and pressed soft kiss to a portion of the scar as if that could erase everything bad that had happened to her.

Something wet hit his forehead and he looked up to find a few tears trailing down Ellie's cheeks, unbelievably touched by the gesture as well as recalling the painful memories.

He hated to see her cry so he grasped her hips and urged her forward as he moved back on the bad. She complied, placing her knees on either side of him wrapping her arms around his neck as he held her close, his hand moving up and down her spine soothingly.

"From now on, we do things together, all right?" she asked, pressing her forehead to his and staring into his eyes. "That way we're there for each other if one of us is hurt or hurting."

He nodded, reaching up to cup her cheek. "Together," he agreed before giving her a loving kiss, wholly different from the ravenous kissing they'd engaged in, the seriousness of the past allowing them to slow things down.

He raised one hand to softly caress her breast while he lowered his other to her lower back to press her more firmly against him before giving her rear a light squeeze, seeking to pick things up where they'd left off and start a new beginning for each of them.

Ellie sighed, utterly content as her head fell back and her fingers snaked through his short greying black hair, and her breath hitched when his lips latched onto her throat, making her arch into him.

His muscles tensed as she came into contact with his hard arousal, and he fell back on the bed, pulling her with him as they once against locked their lips in a passionately slow kiss. Foreplay had always been a key factor in their relationship, something they both enjoyed giving and taking, but this time was different, at least for Isaac. It had been so long since he'd been so close to her, since he felt her soft body pressed up against his, that he felt as though he couldn't wait another second to be joined with her and he changed their positions, trailing his lips along her jaw and he smoothed his hand over her thigh, urging her leg higher up on his waist.

It seemed Ellie shared his thoughts and she shifted beneath him to better cradle him between her thighs. "We can take our time later. Please… _now_," she breathed, her eyes rolling back as he rocked his hips against her.

Needing no further encouragement, he entered her in one swift thrust and shuddered at how deliciously ready she was for him, and he took a moment to let her adjust as well as bask in the feeling that came with coming home. As cliché as it seemed, that was what it felt like – coming home after being away for so long. She was the bright light in his otherwise dark world, and he wanted to take a few more seconds to enjoy the first spark.

The woman beneath him, however, had other ideas and snaked her hands down to his rear to urge him on as she arched up into him, moaning softly as he slid deeper, and time seemed to blur. His hands moved up and down her sides, exploring her, as her fingers dug into his shoulders, keeping him impossibly close.

It could have been seconds or it could have been hours, but the coil began to wind tighter and tighter as Ellie's soft whimpers turned into desperate cries until she began crying out his name as she teetered on the edge.

Breathing harshly, pressing his face into her shoulder, he slipped his hand along the small of her back to guide her through the final thrusts.

Ellie's composure snapped along with her sanity and she threw her head back with a cry of ecstasy, and Isaac followed quickly after her, capturing her lips with his own and swallowing her cries, moans, and whimpers as he went ridged above her.

Panting, pressing his forehead against hers, he rolled off of her, chuckling breathlessly at her disapproving whimper and he pulled her flushed body into his side.

Stretching languidly, Ellie murmured, "I missed this. Us."

He sighed, eyes closed in contentment. "Me too. You have no idea how much."

"I…" she trailed off to yawn. "I wish we could just stay awake all night to catch up, but I'm beat."

"Get some sleep, sweetheart," he whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "We'll catch up on everything in the morning."

"M'kay," she murmured. "Sweet dreams, Isaac."

He smiled at her words, recalling the first time she'd said them and each time after. Ellie thought that somehow the words could keep the horrific nightmares at bay. They didn't, but it was a nice thought.

Isaac only hoped that tonight, those words came true.

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_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **_**I finished playing the **_**Awakened DLC _about halfway through this_**_**, and though I enjoyed it, the ending was more than a little disappointing in my opinion. But with that being said, I will incorporate some of the info from that **_**DLC**_** into this story.**_

_**Also, I'd like to have an opinion on something. If you're interested in lending me your thoughts, continue reading...  
**_

_**I've been itching to write another **_**Dead Space**_** fanfic that's Carver centered, and because I'm a sucker for any kind of romance, a Carver/OFC or something. Were there any Carver fanfics already being written I might not feel so compelled to write one, but there are none, which is upsetting because he's such an awesome character! I've got a few prompts in my head – if you'd like to hear some of what I have in mind and lend your opinion, feel free to let me know and I'll share with you my ideas.**_

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The morning sunlight filtered in through the blinds, the bright rays casting light on Isaac's face and rousing him from his sleep.

Stretching, dropping his arm over his eyes to block the light, he muddled through the sleep clouding his head and senses. His whole body felt a little stiff and his side hurt a little, and after slowly blinking the sleep away and adjusting to the bright light he saw that the source of the discomfort in his injured side was coming from the woman pressed tightly against him, buried under the crisp white sheets as she slept soundly.

A smile found its way to his face and he ran his hand down her sheet covered side before reaching for the hem high over her head to pull back and watch her sleep. When he was met with resistance as Ellie grasped the sheet and tucked it tighter under her to remain hidden, he chuckled. So, she wasn't sound asleep after all. He wouldn't have imagined that she'd be awake, having never been a morning person.

Giving the sheet another tug, he was met with the same result and he brought his arm around her sheet clad body to pull her tight against him, shivering at how chilly she was even with the sheet covering her. If he was as cold as she felt, he'd probably opt to stay entirely under the sheet too.

Fleetingly, he wondered where exactly the white sheets came from. He could have sworn that the sheets he'd put on the bed while Ellie was gone were dark grey.

Ellie shifted against him, bringing him out of his thoughts, and he said teasingly as he tried to pull the sheet off her, "You know, you can't stay under there all day." When she refused to release the sheet again, he frowned slightly. "Hey, is everything okay?"

The sniffles that followed answered his question for him and he squeezed her shoulder, wishing she'd let him see her face. "What's wrong?"

"Are you seriously asking me that, Isaac?" she demanded, voice hoarse and angry. "You of all people should know what's wrong. God, you've ruined _everything_!"

"Ellie, I… what are you talking about?" he asked desperately, positively confused about her attitude and why she was saying these things. "Is this about Norton, or our relationship? What is it? I don't understand."

"Ha! That's a twist – Isaac Clark the Marker Killer doesn't understand what's going on!" she exclaimed on an angry, twisted laugh. "And here I thought you had all the answers. After all, you know just how to build and destroy the Markers and you figured out the mystery of the Moons. Although, you never could understand the women in your life. You claim to love me and you betrayed me and let me go away to rot on some ship!"

"Ellie –"

"Stop saying that name!" she screamed at the top of her lungs in a rage, flipping on her side to face him from beneath the sheet. "Stop calling me that! Why? What did I do wrong? All you had to do was listen to me and we'd be together Isaac! Why didn't you make us whole?!"

Isaac's heart stopped and his blood froze at her last words, an icy hand gripping his heart as dread filled his whole being. It couldn't be…

Sitting up, he yanked the sheet away and revealed not Ellie, but Nicole, bloody with wild glowing eyes and decaying flesh.

"Why?!" she screamed, lunging her hands towards his face, scratching him.

Isaac recoiled, bringing his hand to his bloody face and nearly falling off the bed. "Where is she? What did you do with Ellie?" he demanded, looking around for Ellie.

"The same thing I'm going to do to you!" Nicole screeched, inching towards him like a predator.

No, no, no!

He hadn't let her win the first time and he wasn't going to let her dominate his life anymore, and he damn well wasn't going to let her hurt Ellie.

Throwing himself at her, Isaac pinned the decaying, enraged woman to the bed and tightened his hands around her throat. His weapon was on the table and he wasn't sure if he could get to it before she stabbed him with her claw-like fingers before he got to it, so strangling her would have to do. How many times did he have to kill her before she left him alone?

Blood oozed from between his fingers as her gory flesh split beneath his hands, forcing him to tighten his hold on her blood-slicked neck. "Where is she? Tell me what you did with Ellie!"

"That's right, Isaac, kill me! Get me out of the way again just like you did when you sent me to the _Ishimura_!" she hissed, her breath coming out in choked gasps as she dragged her nails down his arms and pried at his hands. "After you kill us, you can slice your wrists and watch the blood drip with each breath because you won't have me, you won't have Ellie – you'll just have the empty hole that used to be your sole. And when the pain is too much to bear, I'll be waiting for you, Isaac! Do you hear me?"

Us? What did she mean by after he killed "us"? It was making his head ache so much that he felt as if his skull was splitting in two. All that was clear was that Ellie was in danger.

Nicole, the Markers, the Necromorphs, _nothing _was getting to Ellie, not if he had a say in the matter.

"Lead us home, Isaac!" she shrieked, blood spraying upward to dot his face. "Make us whole!"

He squeezed tighter, gritting his teeth.

All of a sudden a sharp pain shot through his side that forced his eyes shut against the agony, soon accompanied by a wholly singular pain in his head as the air rush from his lungs and a chill washed over him. It was as if the pain in his side caused something to snap, breaking some sort of spell only to allow something into his head, something evil.

He felt as if he was in the cold void of space, unable to breath, freezing, and in pain, and before him were Necromorph Moons – how many he couldn't tell. They hovered ominously over him, drawing closer and closer until the pain in his side returned in spades, bringing him back to the here and now.

Snapping his eyes open, vaguely aware that it was still night as opposed to morning like he thought, he stared at the wound on his left side to find two slender fingers embedded deep in the wound up to the first knuckle, and those fingers weren't pasty white – they were dark olive in color.

Jerking his eyes upwards, Isaac discovered to his horror that it wasn't Nicole he was choking, but rather it was _Ellie_!

He immediately released her neck from his grasp and moved his arms around her to help her sit up as she coughed violently, removing her fingers from his wound to rub her throat while holding onto him like a lifeline with her other hand.

"Fuck, Ellie… Oh, fuck, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," he repeated brokenly over and over, sifting his fingers through her hair as she hooked her arms around his neck, sucking much needed air into her deprived lungs.

"What…" she coughed, willing her sore throat to work. "You were tossing and turning, and when I tried to wake you up you grabbed me, and… What the hell was _that_, Isaac?"

"A nightmare," he replied tightly, holding her close for a brief moment only to worry that he was perhaps holding her too tightly and loosening his hold, not wanting to cause any more damage than he already had.

Coughing, heightening his guilt, Ellie rasped, "Tell me."

He opened his mouth, recalling that she'd wanted them to be honest with each other, but how could he tell her that he was once again dreaming about his dead girlfriend as a product of the Markers when that damn signal was supposed to have been destroyed or blocked or whatever destroying that planet had done?

Sighing, the words stuck painfully in his throat, blocked by the guilt and fear spawned from choking her, he pressed a long kiss to her forehead before moving away from her.

He pulled on his boxers and said quietly, "I'll get you some water and ice for your throat."

Hopefully the ice maker in the freezer worked.

The ache in his side reminded him of his injury and he sighed, looking at it to find that it was oozing blood fairly quickly. He did hurry to grab a towel to stop the bleeding, but instead chose to get some water and ice for Ellie first.

Retrieving his glass from earlier in the day, he filled it near to the rim then moved to retrieve ice from the freezer. It was just his luck, however – there was no ice and the freezer temperature was about the same as it was in the fridge. Just something else that had gone wrong.

"Ow!" Isaac hissed suddenly, jerking when Ellie came up behind him to place her shirt coated in medical gel over the wound.

"Quit squirming," she scolded gently, maneuvering in front of him.

She was now wearing his dark blue shirt that ended at her thighs, and in the better light he saw that her neck was already an angry red with bruises forming. They'd no doubt be a perfect match with his hands once they'd formed completely.

"You mentioned Nicole," Ellie commented.

He sighed, nodding.

"Isaac, tell me what you were dreaming about that made you snap and choke me in your sleep," she urged. When he remained silent, she blew out a frustrated breath and reached up to grasp his jaw forcing him to look at her eyes and not her neck. "All things considered, I think I have a right to know what just happened."

He said nothing for a moment.

His nightmares were hard enough for him to deal will, why should he burden her with them as well? But the way he bottled up what was going on in his head had been a leading problem in their relationship before she left. More than anything he wanted her in his life, and if that meant he had to tell the ugly details of his disturbed and scared mind, he'd do it.

Grudgingly, he relented and replied, "It was like I woke up and it was morning, and you wouldn't come out from under the sheets. I thought it was you, but it was Nicole, or at least, it was the Marker's representation of Nicole. She said she'd done the same to you that she was going to do to me, so I started choking her, but…"

"But what?" she urged gently. Releasing his jaw, she brushed the backs of her fingers down his cheek.

"She was egging me on, telling me to kill her again and then kill myself, and that she'd be waiting for me after I couldn't take the pain anymore. But she said 'kill us' – I didn't know what she meant until I woke up and realized I was choking you, not her. God, Ellie…" he trailed off, raising his hands to tangle in her hair, pressing his forehead against hers. "I almost killed you."

"It wasn't your fault."

He pulled back stared at her incredulously. "_I _was the one strangling you. I –"

"You were having a hallucination in your sleep," she interrupted, removing her shirt from his wound and picking up one of the bandages she'd set on the counter without his knowing. "You should know better than anyone how damn confusing and horrifying they can be. How _real _they can seem. If I started blaming myself for everything the Marker's caused me to see I'd be a basket case by now."

He winced when she put the bandage over his wound but made no complaint, feeling that he deserved the little bit of pain for what he did to her.

Sighing, realizing that she wasn't going to be able to keep him from blaming himself so soon after strangling her, she asked, "Was there anything else significant?"

"Apart from the fact that I'm still have Marker hallucinations when the fucking signal should have been destroyed?"

"Isaac, I'm serious."

"So am I," he argued, gently grasping her arms. "Ellie, how can I still have these nightmares if the signal was destroyed? If I'm seeing things, then maybe the other Moons can…" he trailed off, recalling the last portion of his nightmare.

Frowning, she pressed, "What is it?"

"Just before I woke up, Nicole said 'lead us home and make us whole', and then my vision flashed and I felt… off before finding myself in front of the Moons." Looking away, gathering his thoughts, he then looked back at her and added worriedly, "Ellie, I think the other Moons are coming, or at least awake and searching."

She blinked. "What?"

"She said 'lead us home and make us whole'!" he repeated, voiced raised as he released her to pace. "Something must have happened before Carver and I destroyed the Moon. Maybe it got a message out to the others, or maybe the signal wasn't destroyed, or maybe –"

"Isaac, stop!" Ellie snapped. Coming to stand in front of him, she cupped his face gently in her hands and said, "You can't possibly learn all of that from one hallucination, Isaac, and you certainly can't figure anything out without some real sleep. Listen, in the morning we'll brainstorm and figure all of this out, but you need to go back to sleep. You've only slept for two hours."

He stared at her, shocked. "Two hours? That's all?"

She nodded, reaching up to sift her fingers soothingly through his hair, kissing his chin. "I'm just as worried about all of this as you are, Isaac. Believe me, I've spent the past few days thinking nonstop about every single threat out there. But neither of us are going to be any good to anyone if we're so tired we can't walk a straight line. So, come to bed, please."

He hesitated.

What he wanted to do was start taking notes, looking for anything abnormal on the 'net, and listen in on RIG chatter. The sooner they got to it, the better everyone would be. But when a yawn rose from his chest, he recalled just how exhausted he was and sighed.

Ellie was right, whether he wanted to admit it or not. He needed sleep and so did she.

Sensing that she'd won, she took his hand in hers and tugged him back to the bed, slipping under the rather cheap sheets that had come with the bed. He joined her a second later, turning onto his side and pulling her to him.

"Ellie, I –"

"I swear, if you apologize one more time I'm going to hurt you," she snapped, tucking her head under his chin. "It wasn't your fault and I'm fine – sore, but fine. We can get through this, we just need to sort things out with the Markers and Moons."

"And EarthGov and the Unitologists," he muttered.

She groaning, tightening her arms around him. "We can only handle one threat at a time, Isaac. Let's save the possibly apocalyptic conversation for the morning, shall we? I'm still exhausted and I know you are too."

Sighing, Isaac soothed his hand up and down her back, and replied, "All right."

Neither spoke again that night but sleep didn't find them for over an hour, their minds still plagued with worry and dread for what was happening and what was coming. Isaac only hoped that he hadn't missed something and that he could still stop the Marker threat. If he couldn't, they were all screwed.

* * *

_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


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